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Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest

Summary

The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…

Matches: 14 hits

  • … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the …
  • … do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871 ) …
  • … first two printings, Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand trade to be a …
  • … to her liking, ‘to keep in memory of the book’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, 20 March 1871 ). …
  • … and had forsaken his lunch and dinner in order to read it ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 19 …
  • … they believe to be the truth, whether pleasant or not’ (letter from W. W. Reade, 21 February 1871). …
  • … and Oldham … They club together to buy them’ ( letter from W. B. Dawkins, 23 February 1871 ). …
  • … one’s n th . ancestor lived between tide-marks!’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 February 1871 ). …
  • … habits, furnished with a tail and pointed ears”  (letter from Asa Gray, 14 April 1871) …
  • … ‘will-power’ and the heavy use of their arms and legs ( letter from C. L. Bernays, 25 February 1871
  • … in order to make it darker than the hair on his head ( letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [before 25 …
  • … together with an image of an orang-utan foetus ( letter from Hinrich Nitsche, 18 April 1871 ). …
  • … of himself, adding that it made a ‘very poor return’ ( letter to Hinrich Nitsche, 25 April [1871] …
  • … each night, returning to its allotted space each morning ( letter from Arthur Nicols, 7 March 1871

Darwin’s queries on expression

Summary

When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…

Matches: 22 hits

  • … handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller, 22 February …
  • … Correspondence about Darwin’s Questionnaire (click on the letter dates to see the individual letters …
  • … Correspondent Letter date Location …
  • … Blair, R.H. 11 July 1871 Worcester College for the …
  • … Africa)? ] mentioned in JPM Weale letter, but Bowker's answers not found …
  • … Brooke, C.A.J. 30 April 1871 Sarawak, Borneo …
  • … Chaumont, F.S.B.F. de 11 March 1871 Woolston, …
  • … Square W London, England enclosed in a letter from Henry Maudsley …
  • … Crichton-Browne, James 3 April 1871 West Riding …
  • … Donders, F.C. 28 March 1871 Utrecht, Netherlands …
  • … Foster, Michael 4 June [1871] Trinity College, …
  • … South Africa possibly included in letter from Mansel Weale …
  • … Peradeniya, Ceylon enclosed in letter from G.H.K. Thwaites …
  • … Gray, Asa 14 April 1871 Cambridge, Massachusetts, …
  • … Gray, Asa 10 & 14 March [1871] Cambridge, …
  • … Egypt] possibly included in letter(s) from Asa Gray Nile …
  • … Lake Wellington, Australia letter to F.J.H. von Mueller nodding, …
  • … Abbey Place, London, England letter to Emma Darwin baby expression …
  • … Penmaenmawr, Conway, Wales letter to Emma Darwin infant daughter …
  • … 32 Queen Anne St. Cavendish Square W, London, England Enclosed letter from Dr. …
  • … Mivart, G.J. 26 Jan 1871 North Bank, London, England …
  • … Reade, Winwood W. 1 Feb 1871 11 St Mary Abbot's …

Women as a scientific audience

Summary

Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…

Matches: 20 hits

  • … Were women a target audience? Letter 2447 - Darwin to Murray, J., [5 April 1859] …
  • … Tollet for proofreading and criticisms of style. Letter 2461 - Darwin to Hooker, J. …
  • … her to read to check that she can understand it. Letter 7312 - Darwin to Darwin, F. …
  • … from all but educated, typically-male readers. Letter 7124 - Darwin to Darwin, H. E …
  • … he seeks her help with tone and style. Letter 7329 - Murray , J. to Darwin, [28 …
  • … in order to minimise impeding general perusal. Letter 7331 - Darwin to Murray, …
  • … he uses to avoid ownership of indelicate content. Letter 8335 - Reade, W. W. to …
  • … so as not to lose the interest of women. Letter 8341 - Reade, W. W. to Darwin, …
  • … which will make it more appealing to women. Letter 8611 - Cupples, A. J. to …
  • … Darwin’s female readership Letter 5391 - Becker, L. E. to Darwin, [6 February …
  • … of the Manchester Ladies Literary Society . Letter 6551 - Becker, L. E . to …
  • … the chapter on pangenesis, which is a revelation. Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. …
  • … Darwin assumes that 'A. B. Blackwell' is a man. Letter 7177 - Cupples, G. to …
  • … him to the psychology of Herbert Spencer. Letter 7624 - Bathoe, M . B. to Darwin …
  • … his statements on a lack of reasoning in animals. Letter 7644 - Barnard, A. to …
  • … during a visit to an asylum with her father. Letter 7651 - Wedgwood, F. J. to …
  • … on any comments that she feels might be suitable. Letter 7411 - Pfeiffer, E. J. to …
  • … and beauty in the process of sexual selection. Letter 8055 - Hennell, S. S. to Darwin, …
  • … of a woman’s natural thinking”. Letter 8778 - Forster, L. M . to Darwin, H. …
  • … Variation Letter 5712 - Dallas, W. S. to Darwin, [8 December 1867] …

Science: A Man’s World?

Summary

Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…

Matches: 17 hits

  • … feminine world of family, home and sociability. Letter 489 - Darwin to Wedgwood, E., …
  • … an hour “with poor Mrs. Lyell sitting by”. Letter 3715 - Claparède, J. L. R. A. E. to …
  • … whose attractions are not those of her sex”. Letter 4038 - Darwin to Lyell, C., [12-13 …
  • … her own steam and is a “first rate critic”. Letter 4377 - Haeckel, E. P. A. to Darwin, …
  • … ornaments in the making of feminine works”. Letter 4441 - Becker, L. E. to Darwin, [30 …
  • … the young, especially ladies, to study nature. Letter 4940 - Cresy, E. to Darwin, E., …
  • … Anderson is “neither masculine nor pedantic”. Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. B., …
  • … to him as a published science author, is a man. Letter 7314 - Kovalevsky, S. to Darwin, …
  • … Theoriae Functionum Ellipticarum , (1829). Letter 7329 - Murray, J. to Darwin, [28 …
  • … to prick up what little is left of them ears”. Letter 8055 - Hennell, S. S. to Darwin, …
  • … almost out of a woman’s natural thinking”. Letter 8079 - Norton, S. R. to Darwin, [20 …
  • … but has not read the pamphlet herself. Letter 8335 - Reade, W. W. to Darwin, [16 May …
  • … narrative so not to lose the interest of women. Letter 8341 - Reade, W. W. to Darwin, …
  • … which will make it more appealing to women. Letter 10746 – Darwin to Dicey, E. M., …
  • … inability to cope well with the sight of blood. Letter 12389 - Johnson, M. to Darwin, …
  • … to have entered the cave “since the flood”. Letter 13414 - Darwin to Harrison, L., [18 …
  • … and possess strong powers of patience. Letter 13607 – Darwin to Kennard, C. A., [9 …

Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution

Summary

The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’.  Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…

Matches: 25 hits

  • … shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding machine’  ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December …
  • … anything which has happened to me for some weeks’  ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ) …
  • … corrections of style, the more grateful I shall be’  ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ) …
  • … who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). …
  • … abt any thing so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February …
  • … thro’ apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] …
  • … how metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870 …
  • … in thanks for the drawing ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] …
  • … patients, but it did not confirm Duchenne’s findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March …
  • … muscle’, he complained, ‘is the bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). …
  • … to their belief that all demons and spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 …
  • … . . Could you make it scream without hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] …
  • … or crying badly; but I fear he will not succeed’ ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June [1870] …
  • … Lucy Wedgwood, who sent a sketch of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). …
  • … is the inclination to finish my note on this subject’  ( letter from F. C. Donders, 17 May 1870 ). …
  • … the previous year (see  Correspondence  vol. 17, letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). His …
  • … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
  • … to criticise them? No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). Darwin very …
  • … to say that I  never  write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). St George …
  • … wasted if I once began to answer objectors’ ( letter to W. H. Flower, 25 March [1870] ). In his …
  • … essays (later revised as  Genesis of species (Mivart 1871)), Mivart tried to carve out a position …
  • … Bruce, about the possibility of inserting a question in the 1871 census about cousin marriage. …
  • … go on to the last of my uncomfortable days’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 18 February [1870] ). But he …
  • … attending college lectures for the time being ( letter to [E.W. Blore], [October 1870 or later] ). …
  • … evidence believe in bad motives in others’  ( letter to W. D. Fox, 15 November [1870] ). Fox …

Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small

Summary

In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…

Matches: 24 hits

  • … ‘I feel a very old man, & my course is nearly run’ ( letter to Lawson Tait, 13 February 1882 ) …
  • … fertility of crosses between differently styled plants ( letter from Fritz Müller, 1 January 1882 …
  • … François Marie Glaziou (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter from Arthur de Souza Corrêa, 20 …
  • … quite untirable & I am glad to shirk any extra labour’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 6 January …
  • … probably intending to test its effects on chlorophyll ( letter to Joseph Fayrer, 30 March 1882 ). …
  • … we know about the life of any one plant or animal!’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). He …
  • … of seeing the flowers & experimentising on them’ ( letter to J. E. Todd, 10 April 1882 ). …
  • … find stooping over the microscope affects my heart’ ( letter to Henry Groves, 3 April 1882 ). …
  • … sooner or later write differently about evolution’ ( letter to John Murray, 21 January 1882 ). The …
  • … leaves into their burrows ( Correspondence vol. 29, letter from J. F. Simpson, 8 November 1881 …
  • … on the summit, whence it rolls down the sides’ ( letter from J. F. Simpson, 7 January 1882 ). The …
  • … light on it, which would have pleased me greatly’ ( letter from J. H. Gilbert, 9 January 1882, …
  • … annelid seemed to have rather the best of the fight’ ( letter from G. F. Crawte, 11 March 1882 ). …
  • … by the American educator Emily Talbot (Talbot ed. 1882). His letter to Talbot written the previous …
  • … by the flippant witlings of the newspaper press’ ( letter from A. T. Rice, 4 February 1882 ). Rice …
  • … men, and their role as providers for the family. In his letter, he conceded that there was ‘some …
  • … of our homes, would in this case greatly suffer’ ( letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 ). …
  • … anything else. I am now 73 years old’ ( letter to A. A. Reade, 13 February 1882 ). Over the month …
  • … overflowing in tenderness’ (letter from Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin, 10 May 1882 (DAR 219.1: 150)). …
  • … pains)… would be very interesting to me’ ( letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 24 June [1856] ). In a …
  • … steps’ ( letter to Alexander Agassiz, 28 August [1871] ; see also Correspondence vol. 19, …
  • … names to appear’ ( letter to Louisa Stevenson, 8 April 1871 ). It was Darwin’s name that was …
  • … who had undertaken observations years earlier. In 1871, he had asked Henry Johnson to observe the …
  • … vol. 19, letter to Henry Johnson, 23 December 1871 , and Earthworms , pp. 221–8). Darwin …

Descent

Summary

There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … written around the time of the publication of Descent in 1871 and appear in a clipping from an …
  • … ’ Descent was published in two volumes in 1871, yet as late as the summer of 1868 …
  • … such new correspondent was the travel-writer William Winwood Reade who had first contacted Darwin …
  • … ’ Descent was published on 24 February 1871, sold out, and was rushed into a second …
  • … to us should so much resemble one ’. Darwin saved the letter to show Henrietta . *** ‘ …
  • … to, Descent , see Darwin’s Life in Letters: 1871 . …

Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings

Summary

‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…

Matches: 15 hits

  • … On 8 January , he told Hooker: ‘I will write a savage letter & that will do me some good, if I …
  • … to the Editor … Poor Murray shuddered again & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January …
  • … offered to pay the costs for printing an additional 250 ( letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875 ). …
  • … & bless the day That ever you were born (letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 2 …
  • … that the originally red half has become wholly white’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [before 4 …
  • … pp. 188–90). He drew attention to this discussion in a letter to George Rolleston, remarking on 2 …
  • … Darwin wrote, ‘I beg ten thousand pardon & more’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [ c . February …
  • … signed himself, ‘Your affect son … the proofmaniac’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875 …
  • … under the authority of the Church. After becoming vicar in 1871, Ffinden had opposed their efforts, …
  • … both critical and reverential. On 16 July he received a letter from an advocate of women’s …
  • … her presentation copy of Insectivorous plants ( letter to D. F. Nevill, 15 July [1875] ). Such …
  • … of my house within the short time I can talk to anyone’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] ). …
  • … and had agreed to see him at Down with Thiselton-Dyer ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 7 July 1875 …
  • … lay of hair in eyelashes and on arms, a typically lengthy letter full of personal observations, …
  • … examination it was pronounced to be of a ‘high type’ ( letter from Woodward Emery, 17 September …

Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?

Summary

'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . .  What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…

Matches: 29 hits

  • What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’ ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 November [1872] …
  • of man and selection in relation to sex , published in 1871, these books brought a strong if
  • anything more on 'so difficult a subject, as evolution’ ( letter to ARWallace,  27 July
  • best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from RFCooke, 12 February 1872 ) …
  • condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to JJMoulinié, 23 September
  • translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-FReinwald, 23 November
  • to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St GJMivart,  11 January
  • comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from ARWallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St GJMivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St GJMivart, 6 January
  • was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St GJMivart, 8 January [1872
  • hoping for reconciliation, if only `in another world’ ( letter from St GJMivart,  10 January
  • have been ungracious in him not to thank Mivart for his letterHe promised to send a copy of the
  • partly in mind, `chiefly perhaps because I do it badly’ ( letter to ARWallace, 3 August [1872] …
  • Darwinism is to be the theme. Surely the world moves!’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 13 December 1872
  • to find that Weismann accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I
  • few naturalists in England seem inclined to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May
  • reached the buzzing place where I myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May
  • … ‘as for myself it is dreadful doing nothing’ ( letter to THHuxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was
  • and outspoken supporter of Darwinism, William Winwood Reade, Darwin was revising his manuscript on
  • to stand closer (a serried mass) and to be more erect’ ( letter to Briton Riviere, 19 May [1872] ) …
  • and amused rather than offended by `that clever book’ ( letter to JMHerbert, 21 November 1872
  • wrote offering Arthur Mays drawings shortly afterwards ( letter from Samuel Butler to Francis
  • … 'exactly where, from his ignorance, he feels no doubts’ ( letter to FCDonders, 17 June
  • music provided by her husband, Richard Buckley Litchfield ( letter to HELitchfield, 13 May 1872
  • to Henrietta; 'I know that I am half-killed myself’ ( letter to HELitchfield, 25 July 1872
  • a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to WEGladstone, 20 June 1872 ).  Darwin
  • use of the microscope led his head to `fail’ ( letter to WDFox, 29 October [1872] ) he had
  • by hearing about Panagæus!’ Darwin wrote ( letter to WDFox,  16 July [1872] ).  I